NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Sunday, July 28th, 2019

U.S. Representative Suzan DelBene declares support for Trump impeachment inquiry

Today, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Suzan Del­Bene, who rep­re­sents NPI’s home con­gres­sion­al dis­trict, Wash­ing­ton’s 1st — declared her sup­port for an impeach­ment inquiry by the Unit­ed States House, say­ing it was nec­es­sary to hold Don­ald Trump account­able. Below is her full statement:

It gives me no plea­sure to announce that I am call­ing for the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to begin an impeach­ment inquiry into the Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States.

This deci­sion has weighed heav­i­ly on my mind as I have tried to deter­mine the best course of action to take for our country.

I read the report by Spe­cial Coun­sel Robert Mueller on Russ­ian inter­fer­ence in our 2016 elec­tion, and I watched his tes­ti­mo­ny in front of Congress.

The notion that a sit­ting Pres­i­dent would attempt to derail an inves­ti­ga­tion of a direct attack on our democ­ra­cy is shock­ing, unpa­tri­ot­ic, and a vio­la­tion of the oath we share. The Pres­i­dent has tak­en vir­tu­al­ly no action to try to pre­vent Rus­sia or oth­er for­eign pow­ers from med­dling in our free and fair elec­tions in the future.

Con­gress has a respon­si­bil­i­ty laid out in the Con­sti­tu­tion to per­form over­sight. Fur­ther under­scor­ing his dis­re­gard for the Con­sti­tu­tion, the Pres­i­dent has attacked the free press, ignored con­gres­sion­al sub­poe­nas and instruct­ed his own staffers not to coop­er­ate with ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tions. With every act of defi­ance, he con­tin­ues to dis­grace his office and vio­late the checks and bal­ances that are the foun­da­tion of the Constitution.

I strong­ly believe Con­gress must ful­fill our oblig­a­tion to uphold the Con­sti­tu­tion while address­ing the prob­lems Amer­i­cans face dai­ly. All my col­leagues in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cau­cus are ful­ly com­mit­ted to pro­tect­ing our democ­ra­cy and fix­ing the eco­nom­ic and social chal­lenges we face as a country.

Final­ly, I want to say direct­ly to the peo­ple I rep­re­sent that this is a very sad day. I didn’t come to Con­gress hop­ing to launch an impeach­ment inquiry against any President.

But it is Con­gress’ respon­si­bil­i­ty to give these issues the utmost atten­tion and I believe this is the best way to achieve that goal.

We agree. Thank you, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Del­Bene, for this act of leadership.

If a pres­i­dent who is fla­grant­ly vio­lat­ing the Con­sti­tu­tion and mak­ing com­mon cause with the nation’s ene­mies is not impeached, it sets a ter­ri­ble president.

There needs to be an impeach­ment inquiry of Don­ald Trump.

The con­sid­er­a­tion here needs to be the coun­try’s future and the rule of law, not the 2020 elec­tion. Democ­rats can’t wor­ry about how impeach­ment affects their reelec­tion prospects. If they do their jobs, they will be in an excel­lent posi­tion to keep the House major­i­ty. Pub­lic opin­ion is fick­le; try­ing to fol­low pub­lic opin­ion is not what lead­ers do. True lead­ers lead peo­ple to new positions.

Trump and the Repub­li­cans will lie and smear no mat­ter what the Democ­rats do. Wit­ness Trump’s attacks on Eli­jah Cum­mings this weekend.

The racist dia­tribes against the squad were only the begin­ning. Trump has sig­naled we can expect racist tweets (inspired by garbage pro­gram­ming on his favorite chan­nel, Fox) on a reg­u­lar basis in the future. The racist tweets appear to be part of his plan to rile up his base for the 2020 elec­tion. Trump under­stands how to rad­i­cal­ize right wingers; he’s been doing it for more than four years.

Impeach­ment is not an elec­toral trap, as some have argued. It is not a polit­i­cal weapon, either (which is how the Repub­li­cans tried to wield it back in the 1990s). Rather, it is a neces­si­ty for bad times. It is the essen­tial tool the Founders gave us to check and remove a pres­i­dent who has usurped their authority.

These are bad times. Very bad times. Giv­en what we already know about the con­duct of the man who sits in the White House — Indi­vid­ual No. 1 — an impeach­ment inquiry is clear­ly war­rant­ed and whol­ly necessary.

We thank Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Del­Bene for rec­og­niz­ing this.

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6 Comments

  1. Do not lose sight of the fact that the Repub­li­cans hold the major­i­ty in the Sen­ate. Noth­ing will get done if we don’t get con­trol of that branch as well. If we lose in 2020, we will have more con­ser­v­a­tives on the Supreme Court, and more con­ser­v­a­tive fed­er­al judges. We hon­or the rule of law, but if it is one sided, the law is meaningless.

    I do not trust the Supreme Court as it is now con­fig­ured. Point of fact; the recent deci­sion to bypass Con­gress by allow­ing Trump to use mil­i­tary funds for his wall. These monies were allo­cat­ed by Con­gress for the mil­i­tary, not the wall. I can go on and on!!!!

    # by Nick Cirelli :: July 31st, 2019 at 9:03 AM
  2. A rec­om­mend­ed fol­low up-read: Why do so many swal­low all the president’s lies? (by Tom Burke)

    This com­ment has been edit­ed by NPI to com­ply with our Com­ment­ing Guidelines.

    # by Kendall Mongar :: July 31st, 2019 at 10:44 AM
  3. I agree with the idea — but we need to wait for the right time.

    # by Mary Jane Haverfield :: July 31st, 2019 at 1:16 PM
  4. I ful­ly agree.

    # by Sonia Baker :: July 31st, 2019 at 1:50 PM
  5. Go back to D.C. and get some hate & gun laws into place. Shame any mem­ber of Con­gress & pres­i­dent for not pro­tect­ing pub­lic from vio­la­tion of our civ­il rights to live a peace­ful life.

    # by John Putt :: August 4th, 2019 at 1:19 PM
    • The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives has already passed sev­er­al gun respon­si­bil­i­ty bills. It’s the Sen­ate that needs to act. But don’t expect McConnell to lift a finger.

      # by Andrew Villeneuve :: August 6th, 2019 at 9:40 PM
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